Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 10, 1913 Calumet, Michigan – Annie Clemenc, Leader of Women and Strike Sympathizers
From The Day Book of October 8, 1913:
The news dispatches tell of the arrest of Annie Clemenc, leader of the women strike sympathizers at Calumet, Michigan-the woman who has carried the American flag at the head of the striking miners daily parade.
But that doesn’t tell very much. It doesn’t tell the story of Annie Clemenc. The name means nothing to you who read the mere statement that Annie Clemenc was arrested.
But I have met Annie Clemenc. I have talked with her. I have seen her marching along the middle of the street, carrying that great American flag. It is a silk flag. The staff must be fully two inches thick.
When I read that Annie Clemenc has been arrested I think of the dirty little jail in Calumet. And I think of Joan of Arc and the Goddess of Liberty. Then I think of the notable women I have seen in New York, in San Francisco, in Chicago and in Washington.
Early one morning I trudged along the road, walking at one side with Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, as the parade went from Red Jacket to Laurium and back. Women were in the front-miners’ wives, miners’ daughters-and Annie Clemenc, heroine, marched with them and carried the flag.
Annie Clemenc is a miner’s wife. A Croatian [Slovenian], she was born in this county and educated in the schools of Calumet. If she were dressed in the fashion people would turn to look at her if she walked down State street or Fifth avenue. Even in her plain dress she is a striking figure. Strong, with firm but supple muscles, fearless, ready to die for a cause, this woman is the kind all red-blooded men could take their hats off to.
A militia officer said to me at Calumet: “If McNaughton could only buy Big Annie he could break this strike.”
I suppose Annie Clemenc knows what it is to go hungry, but I don’t believe all the millions of dividends ever taken out of the Calumet & Hecla mine could buy her.
The day when the soldiers rode down the flag Annie Clemenc stood holding the staff of that big flag in front of her, horizontally. She faced cavalrymen with drawn sabers, infantrymen with bayonetted guns. They ordered her back. She didn’t move an inch. She defied the soldiers. She was struck on her right wrist with a bayonet, and over the right bosom and shoulder with a deputy’s club.
[She said:]
Kill me. Run your bayonets and sabers through this flag and kill me, but I wont go back. If this flag will not protect me, then I will die with it.
And she didn’t go back. Miners rushed up, took the flag and got her back for fear she might be killed.
After the parade one morning Annie Clemenc came up to the curb where President Moyer was standing. I was there.
Looking up at him she said:
It’s hard to keep one’s hands off the scabs.
I asked her if the big flag wasn’t heavy.
[She said:]
I get used to it. I carried it ten miles one morning. The men wouldn’t let me carry it back. I love to carry it.
Labor walked into the House of Victory through the back door. -Mother Jones
—————
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 5, 1903
Union Recognition Not Granted by Anthracite Coal Strike Commission
From the Appeal to Reason of April 4, 1903:
The strike commission has at last rendered its verdict in the matter of the anthracite miners strike. The miners are to receive a 10% increase-they had demanded 20%-the hours are to be reduced to nine instead of eight, as demanded-but only for those who are paid by the day or week. The capitalist press makes a great adoo about the $3,000,000 which are to be paid to the miners. There were about 150,000 of them, so that each man gets about $20. The increase of wages per man per year will be about $40. On the other hand, the union has not been recognized, the coal is not to be paid by weight, and an arbitration court is to be nominated, consisting of three miners and three operators. If this arbitration court cannot agree, a special arbitrator is to be nominated by a federal judge. In other words, the capitalists have gotten the best of the miners, as usual.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 4, 1903
Editorial by Algie M. Simons: “The United Mine Workers’ Victory”
From the International Socialist Review of April 1903:
The United Mine Workers’ Victory.
—–
At last the long delay and deliberation are over and the arbitration committee has brought forth its report, and the capitalist press unanimously hail it as a victory for the miners.
The main point on which this cry for victory is based is in the 10 per cent rise, in the reduction to eight hours for a few favored laborers, the right to have check weighmen and a few similar articles. That this is a gain no one will deny, that it is in many senses of the word a victory is also true, but the further conclusion which practically every one of these papers draw, that the victory was attained through the methods of arbitration, we are unable to see.
Some months ago when the arbitration committee was first elected we pointed out that the miners would receive just what the proletariat has always received in a contest with its masters,—what it was able to take. There is, at least, some doubt if in this case the United Miners have not received even less than they could have taken had the fight gone on. We now know that there was nearly a million dollars still remaining in their treasury with funds pouring in from all over the world. We now know that a few weeks more of the strike would have brought on a coal famine that would have paralyzed the industries of this country. The great capitalists probably knew this at the time the arbitration committee was appointed. They must have known something of the probable effect of such a coal famine on the permanency of exploiting institutions. It is pretty safe to say that in view of this knowledge they would have been willing to have conceded the full demands originally made by the strikers rather than to have permitted the strike to have gone on to much greater length.
Every day that passed during the closing weeks of the struggle gathered new converts for the miners’ cause. At the same time the Socialists were using the material which was developing from day to day with tremendous force as an indictment against the entire system of capitalism. Under these conditions it is at least questionable whether Mitchell showed good tactics, considered from a trade union point of view, in accepting a Committee of Arbitration whose membership was so decidedly capitalistic. While considering what they have granted to the miners, the question comes up, could they have given much less and had any surety that another strike would not at once follow? It seems hard to believe that men living in the conditions that it has been shown the miners of Pennsylvania were living, and who had just been able to show such marvelous solidarity and organized resistance, would have remained quiet had they received much of anything less than what the Commission awarded them.
On the other hand, it must be at once admitted that the investigation of the Commission has not been without its value. Its proceedings when published will throw a flood of light upon industrial conditions in one of the greatest of American industries. This information will be of the greatest value in every battle which is waged against exploitation.
It is certain that the Pennsylvania Socialists who have shown such remarkable growth during and since the strike will derive new ammunition from this report for future battles. But neither of these things offers any argument in support of the arbitration of industrial disputes.
———-
Just how sincere the capitalist press have been in declaring the decision to be a great victory for the strikers is seen by an extract from a private telegram which has come into our hands, which was sent out by awell known firm of Wall street brokers to their customers. After giving the terms of the Commission report they say of the demands: “All of these, particularly five, six, eight and nine, are absolutely in favor of operators. The first and second clauses were offered by Mr. Baer three months ago. This looks like favorable news for PENNSYLVANIA, ERIE FIRST and D. & H.”
The “five, six, eight and nine,” which they favor, are the clauses concerning check weighmen, directing the payment by operators directly to mine laborers, condemnation of boycott and of blacklist. So much for the present. When we come to consider the future we are confronted with the proposition stated above that the contending parties will get exactly what they are able to take. There is no power outside of either of the parties to enforce the decisions of the Commission. In so far as governmental power will be called into use it is upon the side of the operators. There will undoubtedly be another fight before this recognition is granted.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 10, 1902 How Six Months in the Woodstock Jail Made a Socialist of Eugene Debs
From The Comrade of April 1902:
As I have some doubt about the readers of “The Comrade” having any curiosity as to “how I became a Socialist” it may be in order to say that the subject is the editor’s, not my own; and that what is here offered is at his bidding—my only concern being that he shall not have cause to wish that I had remained what I was instead of becoming a Socialist.
On the evening of February 27, 1875, the local lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was organized at Terre Haute, Ind., by Joshua A. Leach, then grand master, and I was admitted as a charter member and at once chosen secretary. “Old Josh Leach,” as he was affectionately called, a typical locomotive fireman of his day, was the founder of the brotherhood, and I was instantly attracted by his rugged honesty, simple manner and homely speech. How well I remember feeling his large, rough hand on my shoulder, the kindly eye of an elder brother searching my own as he gently said, “My boy, you’re a little young, but I believe you’re in earnest and will make your mark in the brotherhood.” Of course, I assured him that I would do my best. What he really thought at the time flattered my boyish vanity not a little when I heard of it. He was attending a meeting at St. Louis some months later, and in the course of his remarks said: “I put a tow-headed boy in the brotherhood at Terre Haute not long ago, and some day he will be at the head of it.”
Twenty-seven years, to a day, have played their pranks with “Old Josh” and the rest of us. When last we met, not long ago, and I pressed his good, right hand, I observed that he was crowned with the frost that never melts; and as I think of him now:
“Remembrance wakes, with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast and turns the past to pain.”
My first step was thus taken in organized labor and a new influence fired my ambition and changed the whole current of my career. I was filled with enthusiasm and my blood fairly leaped in my veins. Day and night I worked for the brotherhood. To see its watch-fires glow and observe the increase of its sturdy members were the sunshine and shower of my life. To attend the “meeting” was my supreme joy, and for ten years I was not once absent when the faithful assembled.
At the convention held in Buffalo in 1878 I was chosen associate editor of the magazine, and in 1880 I became grand secretary and treasurer. With all the fire of youth I entered upon the crusade which seemed to fairly glitter with possibilities. For eighteen hours at a stretch I was glued to my desk reeling off the answers to my many correspondents. Day and night were one. Sleep was time wasted and often when, all oblivious of her presence in the still small hours my mother’s hand turned off the light, I went to bed under protest. Oh, what days! And what quenchless zeal and consuming vanity! All the firemen everywhere—and they were all the world—were straining:
“To catch the beat
On my tramping feet.”
My grip was always packed; and I was darting in all directions. To tramp through a railroad yard in the rain, snow or sleet half the night, or till daybreak, to be ordered out of the roundhouse for being an “agitator,” or put off a train, sometimes passenger, more often freight, while attempting to deadhead over the division, were all in the program, and served to whet the appetite to conquer. One night in midwinter at Elmira, N. Y., a conductor on the Erie kindly dropped me off in a snowbank, and as I clambered to the top I ran into the arms of a policeman, who heard my story and on the spot became my friend.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 22, 1902 From Terre Haute, Indiana, Eugene Debs Pays Tribute to John Peter Altgeld
From The Toiler of March 21, 1902:
Altgeld, the Liberator
-by Eugene V. Debs
John Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld has joined Abraham Lincoln in the realm of the immortals [March 12, 1902]. His career was tempestuous and heroic, and the end tragic and sublime. The gods must have set the stage for the last earthly act of the intrepid warrior and most nobly did he fill the leading role. When the last word of his impassioned plea for liberty died upon his eloquent lips the climax came and the curtain fell upon another martyr in the great drama of humanity.
John Altgeld was born in the throes of revolt [December 30, 1847].A thousand years of feudal tyranny were culminating. The fateful year of 1848 had a violent temper. It rocked the cradle of the babe that was destined to become the tribune of the people.
The leader, now fallen, never took a backward step, never subordinated principle to policy, never sacrificed conviction to attain his end. He was fearless, he was determined, and he was incorruptible.
John P. Altgeld was in the highest sense a statesman, he was a daring leader and a fiery and intense orator whose eloquent and lofty appeals inspired the multitude.
His noblest and therefore greatest official act was the opening of dungeon doors to liberate innocent victims of corporate tyranny [Chicago’s Eight-Hour Class-War Prisoners]. If the gods have to do with politics they ordained the election of John P. Altgeld for this incomparable service to humanity.
Through the rain of fire he walked with steady step to the hideous bastille’s doors, nor faltered once until the captives walked forth men; his official robes turned to ashes in the ordeal, but lo! the flame of calumny to which our hero bared his head is even now become the aureole of his fame.
The robbers of the people, the stranglers of liberty, the foes of humanity feared and hated him; the fawning sycophants of wealth, the time serving mercenaries of power slandered him; this was the measure of his greatness.
The few honest men who knew John P. Altgeld loved him. He was genuine; he was true; he could look God and man straight in the eye.
In the railroad strikes in 1894 he expanded to his true proportions.There he proved to be the fearless champion of the people. He stood upon the boundary line of Illinois and protested against the military usurpation of the President, and though overwhelmed, he proudly vindicated his high honor, and he, more than any other man, retired Grover Cleveland and his pirate crew from American politics.
Altgeld was too great to become President; he will be remembered long after most Presidents are forgotten.
How glorious the final scene! See him summon all his wasted strength. Note the transfiguration in the last superhuman effort—the light of liberty in his eye, the flush of dawn upon his brow as he defiantly exclaimed:
Again to the battle, Achaians!
Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance!
Our land, the first garden of Liberty’s tree,
It has been, and shall yet be, the land of the free.
Workingmen and workingwomen never had a truer friend; he yearned to see them happy, and consecrated all he had to make them free.
He paid the penalty of all the earth’s redeemers. Socrates was poisoned, Christ crucified, John Brown strangled, Lincoln assassinated, and Altgeld stabbed by a million venomous tongues.
The grandchildren of his slayers will seek his works for knowledge and inspiration, and to the coming generations he will speak forever.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 7, 1911 Los Angeles, California – McNamaras Sentenced; Darrow Stung by Criticism -Socialist Candidate for Mayor, Job Harriman, Defeated
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 19, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1911, Part I
Found in Los Angeles at Trial of J. B. McNamara
From the San Francisco Examiner of October 14, 1911:
LOS ANGELES, October 13-[…..]
To-day [at the McNamara trial] the most notable visitor undoubtedly was “Mother Jones,” “the woman to whom a strike is an inspiration to action-the only revolutionary woman we have in America,” as she has been described…..
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 4, 1909
“The Strikes in Pennsylvania” by Louis Duchez, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of September 1909:
—–
[Steel Trust Bulls and Pennsylvania Cossacks]
The steel trust “bulls” and “Pennsylvania Cossacks” were rushed in by the hundreds to club the laborers to death. One poor Hungarian while on the run was shot twenty-four times in the back. Comrade J. W. Slayton has the coat and every bullet hole shows up. The victim is lying in the hospital at the point of death. Another one, an Italian, looked through a knot hole in the fence surrounding the company’s property and two “bulls” ran out with drawn revolvers. One of them kept him covered while the other beat him so badly that he had to be dragged away by his fellow strikers and carried to the hospital. It would take volumes to relate in all its detail the brutality and boldness and lawlessness of the Pressed Steel Car Company.
It is no wonder that the country was aroused over the matter. No one with human feeling and a cent to give could refrain from offering it to the poor, starving men and children and sick women, who were treated a thousands times worse than the serfs of the Middle Ages or the black chattel slaves of the South.
In Butler the strikers were treated about the same as in McKees Rocks. Before the “Cossacks” came all was quiet, aside from the fact that the company “bulls” did everything to start a riot.
When the “Cossacks” came into town, naturally, the striking men and their families would crowd along the main streets. Hundreds of them got out in the middle of the streets of the little village of Lyndora, the Standard Steel Car Company’s town, and the mounted constabulary rushed into them without warning.
—————
—————
—————
—————-
—————
———————-
———————-
———-—–
———-